Recently I purchased The Complete Reader on audio.
I’m not usually a fan of audio books, but when I reread the same book in a multi-book volume two or three times, trying to take in all the information, it’s time to switch to audio, which makes me get through the book, and then I can go back and reread and/or re-listen after I’ve finished.
I’m very glad I purchased the audio. I suspect otherwise I’d be on my 5th reading of At Your Command instead of almost having the book finished now.
Being so close to the end, I feel a little silly about some of my earlier posts, but they help document my journey, which is probably a good thing.
I’m still wrapping my head around some of his ideas. For example, that the Bible is not literal at all. I guess I feel like it can be both. I’m a weird person who sees the forest and the trees instead of focusing on one or the other, but if we can have both the forest and the components, the individual trees, then why can the bible be allegorical and literal? This is my only holdback from Neville’s teachings, and I’ve wished more than once that I could have met him and discussed this with him.
Yesterday, we got in the car to run to one of our favorite restaurants. I’d been listening to the audiobook, so when I started the car, the book started playing. I was waiting for my husband, who had had to run inside to grab his mask, so I kept it playing while I waited. When he got out to the car, he didn’t turn it off, so for the first 30 minutes of our drive, we were listening as Neville explained “I AM.” After we turned it off, my husband surprised me by being interested in what he’d heard. He needs a nickname here, doesn’t he? Maybe he can be A. Nony Cat, since this site is anonybird.
But that wasn’t what I was meaning to write about. What I meant to share was through one part we listened to yesterday, Neville was talking about living in the new awareness. And something that had been bothering me for a while suddenly shifted and made sense.
Jesus, whether he is allegory or actual flesh and blood, preformed many miracles. He didn’t go aside and pray or meditate, and then the miracles occurred. No, he said, “Let this happen.” and it happened. Usually right then and there, but if not, like the barren tree, soon after.
And every miracle wasn’t planned. He didn’t prepare ahead of time before he turned water into wine. His mother said, “Go ask him, he can help,” and he did, after a little fussing, like any child whose mom gets them in a situation they don’t want to be in.
Here’s what hit me. Living in this awareness isn’t something that takes work, except the habit of setting our mind on things above. Once we live in the new awareness, we can see the world as we desire it as we’re living in it.
I’ve been imagining things, items, stuff. And there’s nothing wrong with that, except that it’s distracting. What if you could live in the same consciousness that brings you everything you imagine?
Imagine living in that consciousness. It’s the answer to another quote I’ve been pondering, “Lord, heal my faith.” Said by the father whose son had died in the Bible, after Jesus asked him if he believed. “I believe. Lord, heal my faith.”
It’s also been my prayer as I’ve been studying Neville. “Lord, heal my faith.” And this was the answer. “See yourself living fully in consciousness. See yourself turning water into wine.” And so, that is the event I’m imagining. I’m at my kitchen sink, running water into a bottle, and I try a sip, then turn to A. Nony and tell him to try it. “Wow, this is delicious!” he exclaims. “Where did you get it from?”
“I made it,” I reply, and show him how I put water into the wine bottle and it becomes wine.
Now, in the light of day, this vision seems a little silly, but I’m convinced that this is the teaching. That it’s not something difficult that takes work, but it’s a way of living, day in and day out, where we lay claim to the inheritance that’s given in the Bible, that we truly become sons and daughters of the Living God.
Like I told Nony, something in my spirit jumped when I first started reading Neville’s writings and recognized truth. The same part of me that responds when I seek the secrets of the Bible, the part that knows which voice it follows. “My sheep know my voice and they follow me.”
